Process improvement

Process improvement consultant: fix the process, not the people

Your people are working hard. The work still waits. In my experience that is rarely a people problem. It is the way the work moves from one person to the next, and that can be fixed. I find where your work waits, why, and what it costs you, then fix it with the people who run it, so it stays fixed after I leave.

Chapter 1

Does this sound like your week?

If one of these is yours, the answer is probably not more effort. It is how the work flows.

"Everything is urgent, and nothing moves."

The queue is the problem, not the people in it.

"We fixed this last year. It came back."

A fix nobody owns wears off. The next one has to be built into the job.

"The report says we are fine. The floor says we are not."

Usually the report measures the average, and the floor lives in the worst week.

"My best people spend their day chasing."

Chasing is waiting with extra effort. It goes when the handoff is fixed.

"We bought a new system. The work got slower."

A system built round a broken process makes the broken process faster to repeat.

"Nobody can tell me where the time goes."

That is the first thing I find out, by walking the work as it really runs.

Chapter 2

What you get

Not more effort. Less waiting.

Not a report on a shelf. A process that works.

Not a programme for everything. One process, fixed first.

The promise A process that stays fixed

The new way of working is built into the job, measured against where you started, and owned by your team when I leave.

Early A straight answer

If it is not the process, I say so, and you have not paid for a long engagement to find that out.

For next time Your people able to do it

Your team learns the tools on their own live process, so the skill stays with you.

One person Accountable from start to finish

You work with Vincent Chido King, a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, from the first call to the last review.

Chapter 3

How it works: the Chido method

Every engagement runs through the same five chapters. Each one ends with something you can see before the next one starts.

01 Dream It

Walk the process as it really runs, find the pain people have stopped mentioning, and agree the problem and the future you want.

02 Evaluate It

Measure the gaps, put a cost on the delay and the rework, and rank what to fix by impact, not by who is loudest.

03 Learn It

Design the fix with the people who will run it, and test it small before you commit money and reputation.

04 Build It

Put it in: processes, systems and people lined up from day one. Technology only where it serves the work.

05 Scale It

Make the new way the standard, measure it against where you started, and leave your people able to keep improving.

Chapter 4

What it looks like on paper

The method is Lean Six Sigma. You do not need to know the words to use it: that is my job. If you would like to see how it is applied before you call, two worked examples are published in full.

A worked example I published Meridian Hospital Group

A constructed hospital group, set out problem by problem, with every solution graded rather than sold.

A worked example I published Kestrel Pathways

A constructed employment services provider paid by results, and what its targets do to the people who deliver them.

Chapter 5

Where the work has been done

The work has taken me from NHS teams to logistics operations, small and medium sized businesses and digital first organisations. The method travels. What changes is what to measure, and that is set out sector by sector.

If you know the method Lean Six Sigma consultant

For when you already want Lean Six Sigma and are choosing who.

Healthcare Lean for NHS teams

Pathways, beds, discharge and the clinicians who run them.

Skills and employment Lean for training providers

Referral to outcome, the evidence trail, and the month end.

Logistics Lean Six Sigma in logistics

Flow, reliability and resilience in the supply chain.

Every sector Lean Six Sigma by sector

What breaks, and what to measure, in eight kinds of organisation.

Everything offered Services

Consulting, training, coaching and workshops, side by side.